Recorded over two and a half days in 1995, this horrible album is now nothing but a hilarious memory. The band name at the time was "Mr. Kazoo and the Fabulous Blender Children", and the songs recorded reflect the band at the time: young, inexperienced, and not that good. Although the boys thought their work was laudable at the time, the deadly combination of electric drums, single-track guitars, a "yeah, that's good enough" attitude, and a producer who we think was stoned the entire time resulted in one of the worst albums ever known to man. The band was new and had no idea how to work in a "professional" (and I use that term very loosely) studio. However, there were positive aspects; it was a learning experience, the band had a good time doing it, and Fantasy World is still a fairly decent song. Every band has to start somewhere.
Play list: Y-O-Y (did you have to be a lesbian), Little Green Men, Me, Human Veggies
Fantasy World, Contradict Yourself, Beats, Helmet Freak, Chubby Cakes (not on the original, found this mp3 somewhere)
Johnny Popular
This was a much better expression of what the band could do. Recorded in 1997 at Finest Hour studios in Toronto, the re-named foursome recorded their self-titled album in a little over 20 hours. In that time, the band managed to lay down four solid tracks. The recording time was courtesy of a "Supernova" battle of the bands victory at "The Oasis" on College Street. The gig was the band's third ever, and the victory was a surprise. However, since contests like battle of the bands are designed to rip-off the artists, it took over a year for the band to collect their reward, and even then it took a third party (Peter Minniachi of "Minniachi Management") to get the company to pay up. With the aid of producer Scott Collings, the band recorded new songs that showed a steady evolution in direction and talent. To this day, the band members can listen to the tape without wanting to punch themselves in the face, so that says something about the improvement. This would be the last album recorded with the original line-up, and for that reason it will be forever cherished. We had a blast. We'll miss you Fronty Backbum.
Play list: Really Silly, Smells like Farm, If I only had a Brain, Insomniac's Nightmare
The Phonies
With yet another new name, this self-titled demo album was recorded over Christmas holidays in 2000-01. The new band came together in the summer of 2000 after a hiatus of over a year and a half. Minus the one-and-only Fronty, the boys let their musical evolution continue. The album was recorded in the basement of Daniel Morgan over a few weeks, and was initially intended to be "one last hurrah". After two tracks were completed, the band realised that this was pretty good stuff, so they decided to run with it. The album, although of questionably recording quality, is a fair representation of the band. The songs are catchy, but not too mainstream, and the boys believe they are close to attaining their desired sound. The band did everything themselves this time, and are fairly happy with the result.
Play List: